7 are charged in Arundel cocaine-conspiracy case

Indictment alleges group sold drugs in western county

Metro

News from around the Baltimore region

September 14, 2005|By Andrea F. Siegel | Andrea F. Siegel,SUN STAFF

In an indictment depicting a violent drug-trafficking operation that terrorized communities in western Anne Arundel County, a federal grand jury has charged seven men with conspiring in the crack cocaine trade in several troubled neighborhoods.

Unsealed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, the 11-page indictment describes a group called the Pioneer City Boys, accusing suspected members of selling drugs, and charging one with shooting and wounding an Anne Arundel police officer last year.

Suspected group members sold crack, attacked competing drug dealers, openly punished people who defied them or spoke to police, painted warnings on walls and protected their inventory in the Pioneer City, Meade Village and Stillmeadows communities of Severn, starting in 2002, the indictment alleges. The group included at least one juvenile, according to the indictment.

The indictment is a "significant step in ridding our communities of select individuals who account for a large majority of the violent crimes," Anne Arundel County Police Chief P. Thomas Shanahan said in a prepared statement.

The troubled area, especially the Pioneer City community, has long been troubled by drugs, gunfire, robberies and other crime. The community's struggles with crime and poverty were the subject of a 2002 series in The Sun.

Private groups, government agencies and individuals have pushed hard in recent years to turn around the mostly low-income neighborhoods, even taking landlords to court to force repairs in run-down Pioneer City homes.

The indictment was handed up Sept. 7 and unsealed yesterday as three of the seven were brought to court.

Jerome Otto Waters Jr., 27, of Annapolis is alleged to be among the group's suppliers, the indictment says.

Braswell and Richardson are also charged with being felons in possession of guns, according to the indictment. Savoy is also charged in the Sept. 11, 2004, shooting of Officer William E. Hicks, the indictment says. Hicks was shot in the arm but has returned to work.

Yesterday, three were ordered jailed for detention hearings Friday, three were being held by local officials and one was being sought, said Marcy Murphy, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office.

The indictment alleges that in addition to Waters, Tony Maurice "Tony Sr." Horne was a regular drug supplier for the group, though he was not indicted. The indictment also alleges that Fabian Loring Gray, Delray Jamare Randall and Russell Kels- coe Harden were part of the conspiracy, but they were not indicted. Other court papers indicate that Horne Sr., of Glen Burnie, is 44; Gray, of Severn, is 24; Randall, of Annapolis, is 24; and Harden, of Baltimore, is 21.

Braswell is facing drug charges in Anne Arundel County, and Storey recently was convicted of a drug charge there, according to court records. According to court records, Gray pleaded guilty this year to a federal weapons violation; Horne Sr. is facing a federal drug charge; and Randall and Harden are facing weapons charges.